In search of a safe placement; one hostile reaction
December 2001

Query to Project NoSpank readers, December 12, 2001

Friends,

Can you provide the name of any residential therapeutic school in California or Hawaii for troubled teens that meets the following criteria:

1. The school must NOT use forcible abduction, typically referred to as an "escort service," to transport students to the facility. (These services usually consist of two muscle-bound goons, unqualified except for drivers' licenses, armed with pepper spray and manacles, and driving an unmarked rental van.)

2. The school must NOT require parents to sign a waiver giving the school legal immunity in case a child is injured while being physically restrained.

3. The school must NOT hold students incommunicado, censor mail and monitor telephone conversations.

4. The school must NOT forbid unannounced visits by parents or deny parents free telephone access to their child.

5. The school must NOT subject students to 24-hour surveillance or deny reasonable free time for relaxation, personal pursuits such as hobbies, personal reading, watching TV, socializing or listening to music.

6. The school must NOT use sleep deprivation, restricted diets or forced exercise for disciplinary or "behavior modification" purposes.

7. The school MUST provide hot running water for students' personal hygiene needs.

If you know of such a school, please e-mail the information a.s.a.p. to riak@nospank.net. Of course, we'll share the results of this query with anyone who is interested while keeping the identities of all correspondents confidential.

Thanks,
Jordan Riak


Hostile response, December 9, 2001
[Names, provided in the original e-mail, are represented here by initials and ellipses.]

W....,
Is this a joke? Reminds me of a lawyer who defends his kid in Juvenile Court (JC is about rehab!) Unless these hapless parents begin to advocate for what their kid NEEDS instead of creating a bunch of paranoid fantasies, their neglect will create exactly what they fear. This kind of enmeshed, co-dependent, spineless, Newage abdication of responsibility unfortunately actually PUTS their kid in harms way. Probably in months, or at worst, in just a few years the kid will become 18 and experience all of the below - it's called the adult judicial system. If you know of someone who needs help, have them call me.
L.... F......., MFT, CAS [Telephone number deleted.]

L.... F.......'s point-counterpoint

Can you provide the name of any residential therapeutic school in California or Hawaii for troubled teens that meets the following criteria:

This is such bullshit. In nearly 10 years of placing perhaps 25-30 kids in residential facilities in CA, WA, MT, MN and UT and working with another similar number who have been referred to me from these facilities I have NEVER experienced any school that used the below or who has touched a kid. I'm sure there are some out there and I'm glad someone is exposing them. However, if you are considering placing a kid, get a referral from someone you trust and check out the placement yourself. They are all licensed, professionally staffed and in business. No facility could stay in business with the below.

1. The school must NOT use forcible abduction, typically referred to as an "escort service," to transport students to the facility. (These services usually consist of two muscle-bound goons, unqualified except for drivers' licenses, armed with pepper spray and manacles, and driving an unmarked rental van.)

Try the police. Handcuffs?

2. The school must NOT require parents to sign a waiver giving the school legal immunity in case a child is injured while being physically restrained.

There WILL be involuntary restraint, quite possibility injured and the parents will not be notified since he/she will be an adult.

3. The school must NOT hold students incommunicado, censor mail and monitor telephone conversations.

Right, I guess you are assured one call from jail, all mail censored, etc.

4. The school must NOT forbid unannounced visits by parents or deny parents free telephone access to their child.

Sorry, no phone - visits through thick, scratched plastic in a concrete echo chamber.

5. The school must NOT subject students to 24-hour surveillance or deny reasonable free time for relaxation, personal pursuits such as hobbies, personal reading, watching TV, socializing or listening to music.

Duh!

6. The school must NOT use sleep deprivation, restricted diets or forced exercise for disciplinary or "behavior modification" purposes.

Does becoming someone's "Bitch" and taking it up the ass count as "Behavior Mod?"

7. The school MUST provide hot running water for students' personal hygiene needs.

Water plus mites, fleas, lice. Great personal hygiene.


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